Agreed. I love these guy who know better than the hundreds of BMW engineers, and their thousands of hours of testing and empirical data. One guy says 15,000. One says 7,500. One guy says his buddy changes at 3,750. My God, what would happen if he went nuts and went an additional 50 miles?! One guy says his first oil change comes at 1,500. Tribal knowledge and "I think" don't cut it. That's speculation and guesswork, not science. BTW, doesn't BMW race cars, as well?

You'll need to articulate if you want to add anything to this discussion. BMW races cars but judging by the direction of some of their recent products, enthusiast oriented BMW is fading. Nothing will happen if you stretch a 7,500 mile oil change to 8,000 miles a few times, but stretch (or even follow) the 15,000 mile interval a couple thousand miles regularly, keep your car for 100,000 miles, and let me know how it turns out. They know they won't be responsible for the consequences of long oil change intervals, so they save money where they can.

If you'd like science to back up what you think are "Tribal" claims, look up 335i carbon buildup, or one of the many threads where higher mileage 335s are running like crap due to the issue. Also search "Direct Injection Carbon Buildup", you'll find hours of reading material. Here's the tip of the iceberg. High quality fuel and better oil than BMW supplies coupled with more frequent oil change intervals should help prevent this from happening:

What BMW uses is not synthetic oil. It uses a Base III stock, which, among other things, is based on natural oil products. A loophole in the law allows those blends with additives to market themselves as "synthetic", when if fact they are not.

If you are worried about using the cheapest oil, perhaps a Honda is in your future.

Just because BMW "recommends" it is more than likely a reason to stay away from it. Think other examples: "lifetime" fill on tranny and diff fluids, oil changes at 15k to 17k, etc. Of course they recommend these intervals and products, as they are paying for them, not you.

The major reason for the use of the German 0w-30 is the fact that is made from a class IV base, meaning no natural oil is in it. All man made. And most importantly, it has a higher vaporization temperature, which will keep the gasoline which is now diluting it as a result of direct injection, from vaporizing out the crank case and fuming up the intake runners to back of your valves, causing carbon build up there. Wait till you have to pay to have your valves cleaned. You won't mind paying a little more per quart thereafter.

After having to have my valves cleaned, under warranty, I learned quite a bit about these alternative lube products from some racers who hang out on a certain oil and lubrication web site. Since switching, no more carbon build up, car runs smoother and cooler, and mpg increased about 1.5 mpg on the average. Available at Autozone.

Try it.

Using BMW fuel system cleaner frequently will also help prevent other build up. It's not something to be worried about as long as you take the correct preventative steps, and put your BMW-worshipping ignorance on the back burner.